Switching Images between i586 and x86_64

Beginning with AstLinux 1.2.5, two new board types were added: genx86_64 and genx86_64-serial. These boards are x86_64 builds using a 64-bit toolchain, initrd and Linux kernel.

In general, users will be advised to choose either a geni586[-serial] or genx86_64[-serial] install image and stick with that board type, but developers may want to take a shortcut and switch between i586 and x86_64.

It should be noted that the RUNNIX bootloader will support either i586 or x86_64 run image architectures. Additionally RUNNIX continues to be a 32-bit x86 image, so at first boot the system will be seen as 32-bit.

Note → With custom builds, the .config Buildroot config file determines what architecture is used. The build-system command ./scripts/build board_type allows you to qualify that .config options to a specific board type. In other words, building with ./scripts/build genx86_64-serial will not by itself generate a x86_64 image, you must first cp x86_64-configs/astlinux-ast11.config .config to make it happen.